Many of you are familiar with a book I wrote a few years ago, Odes to the Divine Mother. This collection of 365 prose poems, each one page long, was my gift and expression of Joy―not only to the Sacred Feminine Energy behind all elements of Creation, but also as an homage to my own Lover, Sondra Ray. I began to see her as the Divine Feminine from the time we got together in 2008.

Prior to this “coming together,” I had been with my teacher, Tara Singh, for over 17 years. He had been celibate in his mission of Divine Service to teach and disseminate the principles of A Course in Miracles. I knew I had a mission to be a teacher, but I told Sondra that, “I am not really into celibacy, you know,” in my attempts to be clear from the very start. I figure, being a Scorpio with an 11/11/1954 birthday, with the numerology of each number 11, 11, 10 (1954=19=10), there is a strong sexual energy in my field, and I enjoy just being myself in that. Five 1s in a row–1,1,1,1,1―that’s a lot of phallic forms with the fertile furrow at the end―0. OM!

ODE #328DIVINE MOTHER OF ALL COITAL BLISS

Divine Mother of all coital bliss, in these gracious moments of ecstasy would I join with my lover in the union of infinite affections. You make these bodies perfect in their sharing and give this boon of delight to enjoy, and add to the store of perfect happiness. There is an order in this coming together, a perfect design of the beauty that keeps life ever flowing on this planet of teeming activity. Let sex be totally innocent in its expression, and all the shame from past abuses fall away. Let Love in the truest way engulf this act with total forgiveness, that it may join the pantheon of noble acts of Gods that inhabit this earthly kingdom. Let Spirit come fully into flesh and enliven this Union with a Joy unsurpassed. In these times of conjugal compassion I pay homage to the polarities of physical existence—to the hard and the soft of things; to the light and dark of places seen and unseen; to the male and the female which compose the completion of perpetual life; to the phallus that finds the yoni of receptivity in her perfection, and enters with invitation to the home of her love. I am grateful for this Gift of God, this sexual play of sacred sensation. One of the greatest joys of life itself, let it not diminish or fall by the wayside of worn-out resignations. Instead, allow this coital energy to bring immortality to those with gracious and holy appreciation for this Great Gift. I am at your feet, Divine Mother of this sacrament of all sexual communion.

So these posts on The Art of Sex are natural for me. Recently Jim Cheatham, a friend from my Tara Singh days, made this comment: “Hi. I’ve enjoyed your recent posts on sex. Very interesting indeed. I must say, I think this is your passion. Perhaps the spirituality of sex in art. These art pieces are very impressive. To me, much more so than your holy beings. Just saying…”

The Spirituality of Sex in Art depends on how you see the whole sexual paradigm. Is it pleasurable or stimulating sensation only―or is it deep connection, spiritual intimacy, and transcendence of the physical dualities into the Oneness of an Absolute Joy? Tons of books have been written on the subject of Sex in the attempts to better define its place in the Joys of everyday life. We have been opened more to the innocence of Sex, even amidst a huge pornography industry (bigger than Netflix―estimates are 6 Billion to 15 Billion in sales per year) that can denigrate and indulge in sex to the point of exploitation.

Indulgence is certainly not my intention. The open discussion of Sexuality in Art does not automatically imply denigration. I feel this discussion is a celebration and ascendence. In the relationship I have with my consort, which is one of the Spiritual Evolution of our souls, we are open and free about the exchange of sexual energies that elevate our intimacy into realms of the Divine. We even wrote a book on this called Spiritual Intimacy. (bit.ly/IntimacyRay)

ODE #338 YOU ARE HOME NOW

“You are home now, in the arms of Your divine lover. There is no separation between flesh and flesh, in the innocence that imbues the body with pure spiritual force. We gather on the couch of our sacred space in the temple to our Divine Mother, the maker of all forms of celestial bodies, including our own. We imbibe the nectar of grace and take in the spirits that stimulate our passions to a heightened state. This long absence has made our affections more intense, more appreciated in the moment. The glorious music of Buddha’s bar is playing in the background as we share words and bring ourselves closer in the tête-à-tête of an intimacy immortal. Our phrases of speech lift us to new heights of ecstasy, until their translation into physical touch becomes a natural extension of truth and beauty. Then would our bodies be purified in the fiery crucible of what is actually so—the melding of two souls into the marriage of two twin flames—the joining of two bodies in the coital union of a sexual euphoria. We rise higher and higher in this reunion. I caress Your breasts and feel the hardness of my post increase with each second of our affections. We kiss in what seems an extension of forever. Gradually I find myself entering Your soft flower of invitation with the straight shaft of my growing Love. Deeper into You I go as You take the fullness of what I have to offer. My phallus fills you with the rocking motion of ecstasy. You come, and come again, which gladdens my soul. I give You what You want, more and more, in this elevated homecoming.”

Coming together in the coital bliss of sexual communion is one of the greatest joys of life itself.

“Let it not diminish or fall by the wayside of worn-out resignations. Instead, allow this coital energy to bring immortality to those with gracious and holy appreciation for this Great Gift. ” From Ode #328, cited above.

These few lines declare the Sacred Context of Sexuality, but also the life-giving properties of good health and longevity as a result of the coital energy that is shared. Keeping the flow of sexual communion goes hand in hand with a long life of Pure Joy.

ODE #288IN THIS BEDROOM OF YOUR LOVE

“In this bedroom of Your Love, O Mother of all sexual play, I await my lover whom You have appointed as the one for me to share this divine sacrament of ecstatic joy. She bathes in the shower of Your cleansing water, as the actions of the day are washed away into the past. In this present moment is my perfect happiness made manifest in the erotic heights of divine dalliance. She comes to me wrapped in a towel, ready to receive me and the movements of my affections. I hold Your naked body in my arms and feel the curves of Your female form press softly against me. I touch Your breasts and kiss You on the lips. Slowly I caress Your whole being with my whole being. On the edge of our bed would I place Your lifted leg as you open the flower of Your feminine portal to my Joy. The taste of its petals is like a nectar as I partake of this holy meal. You are humming now in the momentum of Your Love. Now on the bed is Your open body that receives all of my gentle force of giving, my hardened pillar of pure bliss, my whole and wondrous entry into the womb of Your inner sanctum. We rock our world in this sacred coitus of compassion, and enter the timelessness of this everlasting moment of Shakti that shakes us out of the doldrums and lower levels of daily concerns. Divine Mother of this diamond body of delight, I give You my absolute thanks for this sexual sacrament You have created for a heaven on earth in which my perfect happiness is realized so fully.”

Odes to the Divine Motheris a book of discovering the Force of Life in all things―including our sex life. It is much more than that, but since I am discussing Sacred Sexuality in these past few posts, I picked out a few of the “sex-specific” Odes that struck my fancy. They may give you a view of the spirituality of sexuality that I see. What is sacred and brings Pure Joy is holy. There is a line in A Course in Miracles: “The end of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into Heaven.” I would include Sex in this sacred transmutation.

MARKUS

MARKUS received his formal art training at the Rhode Island School of Design, Cleveland Institute of Art, and Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. His mentors were the OP ART painter Julian Stanczak in Cleveland, and ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST Stephen Greene who painted in New York and taught in Philadelphia. What he gleaned in his own work from these two relationships was a keen colorist emphasis and an insistence on sacred content.